1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to paperboard cartons. More particularly, the present invention relates to a paperboard carton or container for fast food items, the blank for forming the carton, and a point of use forming fixture for facilitating the erection and filling of cartons at the point of use. The invention also relates to the method of using the fixture.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of fast food restaurants. Typically, the food items sold at such restaurants include individually packaged hamburgers or other sandwiches, which are unwrapped or opened by the consumer upon purchase. A number of containers have been used for this purpose, ranging from polystyrene clamshell type cartons to simple paper wrapping.
Even more recently than the rise of the popularity of convenience or fast food restaurants, there has been increased recognition of the need to conserve natural resources. Thus, there is pressure upon the paper and paperboard packaging industries to increase the efficient use of stock material and to use recyclable material for disposable packages or cartons. Rising prices are also driving the quest for efficiency and economy.
These demands, and the need to provide an attractive, sturdy package or carton for consumer goods, including fast food items, have created the need for a sturdy, simple recyclable or disposable carton for packaging such food items that can be cost efficiently manufactured, rapidly and easily erected and filled at the point of use, closed and locked to adequately protect the contents, and easily opened by the consumer.
Although commercially available food item cartons, and methods of forming the cartons, have improved, there are some problems which have remained unaddressed. A principal problem is providing a carton, and blank therefor, which minimizes the use of valuable resources while at the same time maintaining the food items in as clean and secure a condition as possible after the purchase thereof and prior to consumption. Handling of some commercially available packages, such as a simple paper wrapping, can dislodge the food item from its container, thus contaminating it. It is highly desireable that a food item package or carton be strong enough to adequately protect the contents, yet be easy to open. It is also desireable that a container or carton for fast food items be quickly and easily erected and filled at the point of use. With current packaging methods, ease of use, efficient manufacture and safety are not enhanced to an optimum degree.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,781,159 (to Copeman) discloses a moisture impervious container for protecting the contents. The Copeman container discloses scorelines around the edges of the side wall panels, whereby the peripheral edge portions of two sidewall panels automatically fold flatly against corresponding edge portions of the other two sidewall panels. This structure is directed to providing a rigid corner construction and hermetic seal. The carton of the Copeman patent is not specifically directed to containing food items and does not disclose a carton which is easily opened and closed. Rather, the top wall panel of the carton simply overlies the upper edge portions of the side walls and includes an extreme end flap that is joined to one of the side wall panels when the carton is closed.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,956,720 (to Rindal) discloses a locking structure including a male locking member having an arrow-like configuration and a slit line female locking member for receiving the male locking member. U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,896 (to Brauner et al.) discloses a carton for food products such as hamburgers. The carton is one of the aforementioned clamshell type cartons and includes a locking tab and slit arrangement for dosing the carton.
None of the above-noted patents discloses a fixture or folding apparatus for facilitating the erection of a carton at the point of use. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,000,275 (to Sevison), 3,146,933 (to Moore), 3,782,071 (to Hagedorn) and 4,295,839 (to Baker et al.) disclose methods and apparatus for forming cartons or trays. The Moore patent discloses a carton having flanges to reinforce the corners. The flanges are hinged to each other on diagonal foldlines extending obliquely from the corners. The apparatus for forming the blank into the shaped carton is a female die wherein the sidewalls of the carton are angled upwardly as the carton blank is forced into the female die. Somewhat similarly, the Baker et al. patent discloses a tray forming apparatus that includes a forming head with a cavity for causing the tray side walls to be erected and the tray gusset corners to be flat against adjacent side walls.
The Sevison patent, particularly FIGS. 16 and 17, and the Hagedorn patent, particularly FIG. 8, disclose that the end or side wails of a blank may be successively folded to positions at right angles to the bottom wall. With specific regard to the Sevison patent, the carton end walls first ride over a first curved edge portion of a jig whereby they move upwardly to a position substantially perpendicular to the bottom wall of the blank. Thereafter, the side walls of the box or carton ride over another curved edge portion of the jig to affect folding.
While the immediately preceding four patents provide useful apparatus for forming a carton, in each case the forming apparatus is part of a large, complex machine which is unsuitable for use in a fast food restaurant, or in any restaurant environment. Additionally, none of the above-noted patents discloses a forming or erecting fixture wherein the forming faces of the fixture walls are at specific angles to induce folding of the wall panels of a carton blank in a specific order or sequence, or a recess or slot between adjacent fixture walls to accommodate a carton that includes backfolded webs or gussets.
Accordingly, there is a need for a sturdy, simple, cost efficient, disposable carton for containing fast food items, and for a forming fixture which may be conveniently used in a restaurant in the food service industry to facilitate the erecting, filling and closing of the carton prior to sale of a food item to the consumer.